


Hand in hand

by Captainmintyfresh



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: M/M, Nightmares, Post 3x01, tsunami
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:20:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21600655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captainmintyfresh/pseuds/Captainmintyfresh
Summary: Bucks been scared of tsunamis ever since Maddie showed him Deep Impact as a child. It's just his luck to get caught up in one.(aka the obligatory tsunami fic.)
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 103





	Hand in hand

Buck could still remember when he first learned about tsunamis. He could remember Maddie’s lips curling in amusement as she told their parents ‘ _ It’s fine, we’ll watch a film and I’ll put him to bed _ ’ before they left the two for the night. He remembered trailing after her to the living room, tugging on the back of her shirt asking incessantly what they were going to watch.

He remembered the joy when she told him they were watching a film  _ none  _ of his new friends at school would have watched, how he promised he wouldn’t tell Mom or Dad that she let him watch it. How the joy had swiftly turned into terror as the plot unfolded. How his heart had lodged in his throat when the oceans on the screen receded and waves taller than skyscrapers formed destroying everything in their path. He remembered Maddie watching his reaction with a mischievous grin that only an older sibling fully aware of the hell they’d just unleashed could sport.

He didn’t keep his promise, couldn’t when his dreams were filled with rushing water and towering waves and he’d wake up the whole house with his screams. His nightmares were always the same. At first it was perfect, he was running along the beach and showing his parents and Maddie how good he was getting at swimming. He splashed in the warm ocean while they cheered and then, when they said it was time for lunch he’d try to walk out of the ocean. It was then that his feet would sink into the wet sand, he’d feel it lodge between his toes and curl around his shins. His heart stuttered as he realised that he couldn't move, as the water lapping at his calves would recede, fast and powerful enough that it would have dragged him with it not for his legs cemented in the sand. He watched as the water pulled away, as the sea swept back, revealing rocks and flapping fish gasping for air and the people on the beach around him screamed and started to run. He watched as the wave grew, up, up, up, taller than him, then taller than Maddie, then taller than dad, taller than his favourite swing set, taller taller taller until he could barely see the top and his lungs would ache from a scream that would only burst out when he turned back to his Mom and Dad, running away, sprinting towards the car while Maddie looked back. He remembered how he begged until his throat was raw, how screams tore from his chest as his feet refused to move from their sandy prisons. How Maddie’s tears fell to the floor and rushed past him to join the ever growing tsunami before she turned and ran after their parents leaving him alone.

He remembered how he could hear the wave coming closer as he tugged at his legs trying desperately to get them out, how his nails would scratch gouges into his thighs as he tried to lever himself free. He remembered the silence before the wave hit, how it was broken by a scream as he flinched against the suffocating crush of water before he woke in his own bed. 

He remembered how Maddie would always be there when he woke up, tone softer than it ever was in the daytime, apologising for letting him watch the film. How he was safe, how a tidal wave could never reach Hershey, Pennsylvania. How she’d said it again and again, night after night until he believed it and the nightmares waned off with only the sickening memories clinging to the back of his mind.

He remembered how when she left for college a year later, she ruffled his hair and told him to be careful of tidal waves and he laughed because a tidal wave could  _ never  _ reach Hershey Pennsylvania. And it was true, a tsunami would never hit Hershey, but it had been a long time since he’d been in Hershey.

LA, it seemed, did have Tsunamis 

Buck could feel the phantom itch of sand around his ankles as his fingers twitched in the back of Christopher's top and his eyes followed the wave growing on the horizon.

“Buck-” his head snapped around, searching the crowds behind him, looking for his parents running away, for a trace of Maddie’s tears leeching towards the wave. He searched for her face, breath lodged in his throat. “Buck.” That was her, she was there. Any second now he’d wake up to her sitting by his bed, waiting to calm him down, waiting to tell him it would be okay, that a tidal wave would never hit- “BUCK!” Christopher’s voice, breathy with panic knocked through the haze in Buck’s mind.

Maddie wasn’t going to wake him up, this wasn’t just a bad dream. A nightmare, yes, but in the same way being pinned down by a fire truck was a nightmare.

“EVERYONE GO! RUN.” Buck screamed.

His feet moved, no sand weighing them down. His hands grabbed at Christopher, tossing him over one shoulder before he spun, turning his back on the oncoming wave as he started to run. A scurry of feet followed, the people around moving from their terrified daze and following Buck in the hopeless dash. Christopher groaned as he was hiked higher against Buck’s shoulder. 

“Buck!! What’s happening?”

Buck didn’t answer him, even as the fingers clawed at his arm in a desperate attempt to hold on tight as the boy was no doubted jostled uncomfortably against his shoulder. He chanced a glance behind him as went. Legs pumping faster as he saw the wall of water careening towards them.

The tsunami alarm sang out amongst the screams of those around him, he wished for it to be his alarm clock. Wished to wake up.. He didn’t, he wouldn’t. 

Bucks footsteps faltered as bile rose in his throat at the gut churning thought that he wouldn’t wake up when the wave hit this time. It wasn’t just the inital petrifiying realisation that he was trapped in the waves course that he’d have to deal with but the aftermath aswell. The moments that even his worst nightmares hadn’t depicted, what happened after the wave hit, when the world turned to water.

Buck’s legs slowed to a stop as he took in the remaining stretch of the pier. The clutter of arcade buildings and stalls gave way to nothing but a walkway.

A woman shoved past him, running as fast as she could. She stumbled, her flip flop came off, she ignored it, probably didn’t even notice as she kept sprinting towards the shore. Getting lost amongst the stampede of people all trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the wave before it hit.

They wouldn’t be fast enough.

He wouldn’t be fast enough.

Buck turned back, eyeing the wave frothing angrily as it careened towards the end of the pier. He could keep running. Could run faster than he ever had before and he still wouldn’t make it to the end of the pier before the wave hit them.

With bile in his throat Buck moved away from the walkway, towards the last stall before the pier gave way to empty space. It wouldn’t keep them safe but surely it would be better. At least here there would be something between them and the initial crush of the water. At least here they’d have something to hold on to unlike those still desperately running. 

He made quick work of tucking himself and Christopher into the stall, pressing them against the thin wooden barrier as if it could stop the water.

“Buck-” Christopher whimpered.

“You need to hold onto me okay? as tight as you can and don’t let go.”

“Buck-”

“It’s going to be okay.” Buck could hear his own voice shaking, could feel his hands vibrating against Christopher’s back as he tried to tuck him closer. Christopher lent back, hand shoving at Buck’s shoulders until he could look him in the eye. 

“I’m scared.” Christopher announced. Eyes wide and pleading, like Buck could just turn it off, like any second now Buck would grin and say ‘sike’ and they’d go back to their day at the pier. And god, he would if he could, if not to stop the shaking of his own hands then to stop the desperate tears gathering in Christopher’s eyes as he realised that there was nothing they could do but wait and hope.

A tear rolled down Christophers cheek, it hit the wood beneath them soundlessly. Unlike in Buck’s nightmares it didn’t creep away to join the wave, just seeped into the floorboard, staining the single patch a dark brown. Bleeding out, spreading through the wood like vines.

“I’ve got you.” Buck promised. He reached one hand to brush the slick trail off of Christopher's cheek, his hand didn’t shake as he tucked Christopher back into his chest. “I’ve got you, okay?” 

The screams stopped. The sea roared and the planks beneath his feet vibrated as the furthest point of the pier splintered beneath the force of the wave crashing into it.

“Take a deep breath.” Buck bellowed, desperate for his voice to reach Christopher over the sounds of the wave crashing closer. Christopher’s chest filled against his, his arms hooking tighter around Buck’s neck. Buck copied his actions, filling his lungs until they hurt before smashing his eyes shut as he pressed Christopher as close to himself as he could.

The sound of the wave approaching was deafening, but that was nothing compared to what it sounded like as hit. How the water plunged over their heads with a sound like lightning striking directly into his ear, how the stall he was clinging to all but disintegrated beneath his fingers giving way for the water to grip his hand like an old friend and pull the two along with the rapids.


End file.
